GAO: Billions Wasted on Redundant Federal Programs

Excerpt

Some budget experts say the contents of this report could provide lawmakers some fiscal cover when they try to abide by the discretionary spending caps they put in place this summer as part of the debt ceiling deal, which capped 2012 spending at $1.043 trillion and 2013 spending at $1.047 trillion. “I look to this report not as saving additional money in the future, but giving policymakers good ideas about sensible places they can look to cut spending to nose themselves under the pretty-tight spending caps they’re already imposed on themselves,” said Josh Gordon, policy director for The Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group. “And they’re going to need the money…there’s only so much you can cut when the government has these basic functions to do.”